


Right Behind You Baby

by Goodluckdetective (scorpiontales)



Series: fallout au [3]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fallout, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 20:12:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6921361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpiontales/pseuds/Goodluckdetective
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fallout 4 AU:</p><p>Carolina and Church are detectives. They didn't used to be.</p><p>On slow days, it's harder to forget what they've left behind. </p><p>For the Institute looms, even from miles away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Right Behind You Baby

Slow days, in Carolina’s opinion, were the worst days at the agency.

 

There weren’t many of them, not with the amount of Havoc going around in the Commonwealth. Usually, the Church detective agency was booming with business, people coming in with cases of missing persons, lost objects, and strange sightings outside the city that begged to be investigated. But some days, when the weather was bad and radiation storms rolled through Diamond City something fierce, business slowed. People stayed indoors. And Carolina went mad with boredom.

 

Usually Church helped curb that boredom. Her Synth partner was used to her neuroses by now and as a result, he was good company. But today, Church was out, helping the man out of time, Lavernius Tucker, who’d come on their doorstep a month ago looking for his missing son. Something about a hideout with information that only he could hack. Which left Carolina alone, with nothing but memories to keep her busy.

 

Memories, she found, tended to be the worst company. Nothing but memories of the Institute outpost she was raised in, her father’s steel gaze, and the reminder that she’d bought his words that “Synths aren’t people” hook line and sinker when he’d asked her to work as one of his few human Coursers when she was nineteen.

 

She still bore scars from that terrible choice. She reached to rub the back of her scalp where her implants once rested. Getting them removed had cost her a fortune. But the lifetime of headaches was worth it to know her Father couldn’t track her down.

 

She leaned back in her chair, reaching for the stack of files on her desk. Open cases, mostly missing persons. One claimed his brother had been taken by the Institute. Another claimed they saw the Silver Shroud roaming around Blood Gulch. The last was Tucker’s file, a picture of his son right on the cover.

 

Church thought Lavernius Tucker Jr. might have been taken by the Institute. Carolina hoped not. Those stories never had happy endings.

 

She wrote down a few notes on the file, making sure to update what Church had learned in the last few days. It wasn’t much of an improvement over what they had at the moment, but it was something. Placing the files back on the desk, she reached for her cup of coffee and took a sip. Stared at the door.

 

“Be a detective, Carolina,” she said, her voice a decent impression of Church’s. “It’s be good money, Carolina. We’ll be useful, Carolina. Maybe we can find where the actual Insitute is, Carolina. Pah.” She took another sip.

 

There was a knock on the door. Carolina almost dropped the coffee cup. She sat back up in her chair, placing the mug back on the desk and cleared her throat.

 

“Church detective agency. Come right in.”

 

“I can’t.” Carolina recognized the voice of Church at once. He sounded almost put out.

 

“What do you mean you can’t?”

 

There was a long pause. “I broke my arms.” Then, in a downtrodden tone. “I had to knock with my head.”

 

“How the fuck did you do that?” Carolina got out of her chair, walking towards the door. “You don’t even have bones-”

 

She opened the door. Standing there was Church, his blue robotics eyes staring back glumly at her. She saw the reason for his complaint at once. One arm was visibly sparking, what was left of the plastic covering almost burnt off. The other was gone entirely, the port showing all the wires where it was once connected. Said lost arm was tied around Church’s back with what looked to be rope. The knot looked crude.

 

“Caboose?”

 

Church scowled. “Tucker gave him a grenade. Stupid super mutant dropped it right on me.”

 

“Tucker gave Caboose a grenade?”

 

“He’s fresh out of a vault. I think he thought all super mutants could aim. Idiot. Thankfully, I’m the only asshole who got damaged. Greenie and “yes, let’s mock the raiders shooting at us” are fine.” He peered around Carolina. “You still have those spare parts right?”

 

Carolina just sighed.

 

Minutes later they were on the couch, Carolina with goggles on. Repairing Church was something she was good at now, almost routine. When they’d first escaped the Institute, she’d been pants at it, almost killing his memory unit once. Now, after talking to some people around town, she could fix almost any issue he came back with. As long as he wasn’t stupid enough to damage his skull and memory banks.

 

“Can I get a chainsaw arm,” Church asked, almost gleeful. “One of Tucker’s robots has one, Shelia, and let me tell you, it’s sick.”

 

“You’re a synth, not a robot,” Carolina said. She almost had reattached Church’s arm by now, at least the basic joints. The rest would have to be welded. “You are compatible with a chainsaw arm.”

 

“And you’re not compatible with fun.”

 

Carolina finished the basic repairs and moved on to the other arm. She would have to get some replacements for the plastic skin Church had for the burns. Maybe she could scrap some if she went outside the city. In the meantime, she went to repairing and attaching what wires and gears she could without a welder.

 

“Hey Carolina?” Church sounded a little meek.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“What were Eta and Iota like?”

 

Carolina stopped. Memories of two synth partners with blue and yellow eyes returned to her. Their memory banks that once resided in her brain. The physical bodies they sometimes used when they had downtime.  How she’d watched Maine yank them out, and put him in his own.

 

“You don’t remember?” Church was good at remembering, usually. It had been his part of the data that they ripped from Alpha. Alpha who was rotting in some storage drive in the Institute. The brother she’d never met and never been able to save.

 

“I remember flashes,” Church said. He sounded almost nervous. Probably knew he was treading on dangerous territory. “Little stuff. When I was with Wash. But not before then, when we were together.” When they were Alpha, Carolina thought.

 

“You really want to know?” Church didn’t ask about his fellow fragments much. Carolina could only guess why. They had been his family, before they all fell apart. Just like the fellow human Coursers had been Carolina’s,

 

Family was a touchy topic in the Commonwealth. Especially lost ones.

“Yes.”

 

Carolina thought for a long moment. Tried to focus on the positive, the memories that only hurt in a bittersweet way. “Eta was cautious a lot. Got scared of every little thing. Was fine in a fight, a great lookout, but if we stumbled on a spider he’d scream so loud it echoed. Always gave me the worst headaches.”

 

“He was scared of spiders?”  


“Only the small ones. The big mutant ones were fine.”

 

Church stared at her, blue eyes wide. “Seriously?”

 

“He said the big mutant ones he could see coming. The tiny ones always came out of nowhere.”

 

“Sounds like a dweeb.”

“Yeah, just like you.” Church scowled and if it didn’t hurt so much to talk about the memories about what had been, Carolina would have laughed. “Now Iota,” she said, thinking back on the blue synth. “He found humor in everything. Told the best jokes. One of the most positive people I’ve ever met.” She’d stopped repairing Church ages ago, too focused on the memories to get anything productive done. “We met a bunch of Raiders once, and he tried to talk one through his emotional issues.”

  
“Did it work?”

 

Carolina snorted. “No. Dude was high as balls. But he tried.”

 

There was a long period of silence. Church’s eyes flicked a bit, blue light dimming then growing bright.

 

“Were they in pain? When Maine took them?”

 

 _Yes_ , Carolina thought. They’d screamed so loud she still could hear it in the back of her mind, a terrible wail that echoed and never stopped. The pain they’d felt when being torn free had been worse than the pain of her hitting the ground after being thrown off that damn cliff. It had been agony.

 

Carolina wanted to lie to Church. To tell him that his brothers had never suffered past what the Institute did to them. But Church was a detective. He could see through a lie.

 

“Yes.”

 

Another beat of silence. Carolina looked down, unable to watch Church’s face.

 

“Will it hurt when he comes for me too? Or when the Institute does?”

 

Carolina’s head snapped up. Her green eyes narrowed, her mouth turning into a tight line. The persona of an easy going but determined detective faded, replaced by something old, something she’d tried to keep buried. Gone was Carolina the detective. This was Carolina the Courser. Carolina the soldier. And with it, something new.

 

Carolina the sister.

 

“They won’t get you, Church. I swear.”

 

“You can’t promise that.”

 

“Watch me.”

 

Neither said a word as Carolina got up to get the welder.

  
  



End file.
